Cool event happening in Toronto on Saturday, October 28.
http://knoxtoronto.org/torontocalling/
John Stackhouse, from Regent College is the keynote speaker and they have some great break out sessions including Brian Walsh from UofT.
Worth checking out!
“Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it’, while really it is finding its place in him”
(303 The Essential C.S. Lewis)
I had a really neat experience last week. I was able to sit in on a meeting for evangelsim teachers of North America. About 60-70 meet (www.aeteonline.org) annually to talk about how better to intsruct today’s seminary students on evangelism and theology. It was nice to meet and chat with a few of the prof’s (one being my prof at Wycliffe, U of T, John Bowen). The best part of the night was listening to and then chatting with Don Posterski of World Vision, Canada. He had some excellent thoughts to say about how the church/christian in Canada can be effective in sharing our faith.
A couple of things that stood out were:
- Stop calling non-christians, non-christians. Identify who they are and call them what the identify themselves to be.
- Lament Fundamentalism. Fundamentalists, in any religious group, have 1 eye and 1 hear, they see and hear only what they wish too.
- Embrace Pluralism while still Preferring Jesus. I thought this was the hardest, yet most important thing he said. If we don’t acknowledge and accept other people’s way of life and faith then the privilegde of inviting them to find & follow Christ will be taken away from the Christian Canadian. Christians are already being discriminated, why bring on more tension and obsticles. This also leads to what Don says about the church needing to ‘denoucne prostylitization’.
- The last thing I’ll repeat hits home for me. He said we must beware of and stay away from ‘prosperity gospel’ (i.e. health/wealth, name & claim). Unfortunately this is connected to the Pentecostal and Charasmatic church whom I’m affiliated with, but Posterski is right on. Jesus talked about money a lot. And when he did, he challenged his followers and listeners to not let money rule or lead them. I realize this kind of theology, as false as it is, sells books and fills some churches, but it’s a far tale from the real gospel.
Thought I’d share some of these things.
If you’re wondering about the title, I don’t work for XXXchurch.com or have a ministry to sex adicts, although I do commend those who do cause there’s a huge need in our society for it.
This past week-end VIBE (the young adult ministry I lead) had our first retreat/getaway. The theme was, you guess it, ‘NAKED’. We had a ton of fun (i.e. chilling, camp fire, canoe tipping…that would be the canoe I was on…thanks again alex, etc…) during the night and day we spent together. The learning/teaching elelment of the week-end was based around these 2 themes: ‘THE NAKED CHRISTIAN’ & ‘THE NAKED CHURCH’ (the 2nd title is borrowed from my good friend and music partner, Dom Ruso - domruso.com). We basically stripped down what it means to be a follower of Christ by looking at the Christian Life and the Christian Church.
As we stripped down Christianity we narrowed it down to 3 things (Jesus was much smarter and narrowed it down to 2). The naked christian: 1) accepts love(from Christ)…involving grace & forgiveness; 2) follows the lover…involves obedience and followership; 3) becomes a lover/giver…involves love and compassion.
When we stripped down the church we all talked about things that really bug us about the church. I must say that I was the first to admit many of my thoughts. While I’ve wondered many times in the past about why I bother with the church, I can honestly say that I love her and that I will give my life for her because the church really is the hope of the world. After our discussion we figured that the naked church: 1) Begins and Ends with God…the church is for God, about God, depends on God, etc.; 2) must have these 4 essential ingredients - (biblical) teaching, (God honouring) worship, regular celebrations of the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist & (christian) fellowship/community; 3) must love God & others, share the gospel story, serve the needy and spread goodness and stop injustice.
We conlcuded our teaching with, you guessed it, “THE NAKED WALK”. (clothes were on of course) This was simply a 30 minute walk that involved scripture reading, prayer and journalling. A great way to close things off.
That’s it. Those who were part of this weekend (16 in total) had a great time. If you weren’t a part of it and would like to use some of the idea’s go right ahead. I simply ask that you let me know how it went and how you altered it for your setting.
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